Wednesday, January 16, 2008

“The thought of any child arouses me,” Kenneth Powell, 35, said during a psychological evaluation, according to court records. “If I were not in jail, I would just keep moving from one child to the next.”

Already serving time for sexually assaulting two girls, ages 11 and 9, in Luzerne County, a former Pittston man was sentenced Tuesday to 16 to 32 years in state prison for the same offenses, in this case with three girls, ages 11, 9 and 7, in Monroe County.

“The thought of any child arouses me,” Kenneth Powell, 35, said during a psychological evaluation, according to court records. “If I were not in jail, I would just keep moving from one child to the next.”

Powell was sentenced in Luzerne County in late December 2006 to 21 months to four years in state prison. He had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two girls whose family was living with him when the offenses occurred.

Oddly enough, he had been released from Luzerne County Correctional Facility on unsecured bail prior to that sentencing. While free, he committed the same offenses with another couple’s three daughters between September and mid-December of 2006 at a Tobyhanna Township cabin, police said.

“In both cases, Mr. Powell ingratiated himself to these girls’ families, passed himself off as a nurturing caretaker and volunteered to baby-sit the girls in order to gain their trust,” Paula Brust of the state Sexual Offender Assessment Board said at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing.

Once he had their trust, Powell began committing the sexual offenses, starting with inappropriate touching that graduated over time to intercourse, Brust said. He also showed them pornography and had them perform sexual acts on him, police said.

“He would even pit the girls against each other,” Brust said.The girls were too afraid to tell their parents, but the incidents eventually became known, police said. After Powell’s arrest in the Monroe County case, he pleaded guilty to several charges.

“This is one of the worst sexual offense cases I’ve ever seen,” county court Judge Margherita Worthington told Powell before imposing sentence Tuesday. “You have completely obliterated these girls’ ability to trust. They and their family will have to live with the damage you’ve caused for the rest of their lives.

Defense attorney Jason LaBar pointed out that Powell had wanted to spare the girls from testifying, an indication of his willingness to accept responsibility. That mitigating factor, however, was outweighed by the aggravating factors in this case.

Monroe County followed Luzerne County in deeming Powell a pedophile and sexually violent predator. This means he will have to register his whereabouts with law enforcement under Megan’s Law for the rest of his life after completing his sentence.

“If the law allowed, I would lock you up forever so you wouldn’t be a danger to any more children,” the judge told him. “But, we can only impose the maximum sentence allowed under the law.”